By One of our members over at AndroidForums.com – Roman G. – is returning his HTC EVO 4G to Sprint due to a physical defect, and before he exchanges it for a brand new one, he decided to give us a look at how well the screen holds up to tough conditions.
His scratch test consisted of taking a metal screw, a key, a razor blade, and a penny to the EVO’s screen with no regard to its safety (or feelings, because phones do have feelings). The result was pretty impressive: nary a scratch or nick to be found (at least from what we can see, and we just decided to take his word for it, anyway).
If anything, this just tells us that you won’t have much to worry about if your keys/loose change and your phone end up brawling with each other in the same pocket. Still, who wouldn’t want the piece of mind of keeping a screen protector on that beautiful display?
[Note]: The glass covering the camera lens on the back of the phone is still very scratchable, so don’t use this as an excuse to treat your phone like it stole something from you.
Thats quite a good test but I would still get a screen protector for the phone.
Is it gorilla glass?
If it is not gorilla glass, it might as well be!
Very nice. Even though you can’t see the scratches, I know they are there. Around the time he uses the penny, you can hear the the sound of the metal hit the unseen scratches. But if you don’t see it who cares. The only out come, that could happen, would be a scfratch or chip, due to extensive torture
EVO 4G vs iPhone 4Gen drop test!! GOOOOOOO!!!
he should have turned it on. with the screen light on the scratches may have been really obvious.
Or you can just drop the IPhone…
Why wouldn’t he use a Quarter or Dime? (They have more ridged edges.)
@Inspiron41: Droptest Iphone 4: http://www.ifixyouri.com/blog/?p=59 – Now find someone who will drop his Evo :-p
@Julian I think he covered any damage a quarter or a dime would do when he used the screw lol. I thought the screw would demolish it for sure
That was SOO hard to watch!
I kept closing my eyes!
Just a dumb question – does the glass on the display screen cover the entire front of the phone? I was wondering about the glass on the front camera, would that be the same as the display screen glass and therefore scratch resistant?
@ Julian
Times are tough bro, we are lucky we got pennies! It could have been buttons!
@way2success. The entire front face of the EVO is one solid piece of glass. The front facing camera shares this same glass front. Glass does scratch even the so-called scratch resistant glass. I have Citizen Eco-Drive watch collection and the glass on them do scratch with only normal wear and tear without putting them through any extra abuse. So for everybody who cherishes their EVO, make sure you put some screen protection on it. Yes glass screens are FAR more scratch resistant than plastic screens but they still get scrathed. It just takes more to scratch them. Those of you who are extremely careful with your EVO will not have much to worry about and should fear scratching the glass screen as easily as you are used to on other phones. One more thing, glass does NOT show scratches nearly as much as other screen materials. Even if you do manage to scratch your EVO’s glass screen, it will be much harder to see and will not be as big of a deal compared to what you are used to on your typical plastic phone scrreen.
Good luck taking it back. My friend that works for Sprint says they have no ‘other’ Evo’s to give anyone with issues.
I CRINGED!! But I’m so happy that it can take a lot of abuse! I feel better.
My screen protector ends up getting scratched up! so the phone looks more beat up with the protector than it would if I didn’t have one.
HEY Roman, thanks for doing this, it gives everyone an idea of how strong the screen is.
This made me decide to not buy a screen protector.
If you haven’t sent it in yet, could you put some sand on a table and rub it against it hard and then turn on the backlight?
That would be the ultimate test.
I could care less if the screen was made of diamond. I’d still be getting a Zagg invisishield for my EVO…if it existed.
My Droid has a Zagg shield, and it’s perfectly content and so am I.
@Roentijen They do have an invisishield for the evo, i have one on mine. But im in wa state, dont know where you are, but they do make one.
This is all well and good, but the real question is:
Will it blend?
Well there was a similar test done on the Nexus One, but according to forum it still scratch in several reported cases by users. So yeah…… it remains to be seen.
I just installed the ZAGG invisibleShield protector on my EVO. I feel better about it now, even after watching the video here. The back cover shield doesn’t protect the lens of the back camera however. Does reduce glare a bit, but not an anti-glare screen per se. Made a video of the ZAGG install, will post on YouTube & my site soon.
:-( Seems he took the video down and I cannot find a downloadable version anywhere online.
This is the best solutions I’ve found for preventing my camera lens from getting scratched and I’ve tried a few. It’s called the Lens Protector and it eliminates the problem without the need for a case and is very inexpensive…. Problem solved and I get to “Go Naked” !
I bought it from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Protector-Protects-Scratches-Incredible-Installation/dp/B004GZSXQI/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=mobile&qid=1296169507&sr=8-12
This is very cool. I went and got one and it does the trick. I’ll see how well it holds up, but what I like is that after two weeks and pulling in and out of my pocket the ring is solid. I don’t like cases, so this is all that’s really left to do on the EVO. I wish Sprint had thought of this, or just handed them out.